Seriously people, what the f%$k is going on?!! Four bonafide legends have sadly succumbed to illness within the past two weeks with the most recent being Donald 'Duck' Dunn, the bass player from 70s studio band Booker T and the MGs, and disco über queen Donna Summers.
Flying the sparkly, diamante studded flag for the sweaty, free spirited disco revolution of the 70s, Summers and her work with Giorgio Moroder pioneered the way for generations of club music ahead of her. Her first big hit was with the 17 minute, sex-fuelled funk chugger "Love to Love Your Baby", her first collaboration with Moroder that forced Brian Eno to tell David Bowie that he had "...heard the sound of the future".
Summers continued to churn out the gold including the epic, arpeggiated dancefloor anthem "I Feel Love", and by the late 1970s she's been responsible for three number one albums: 1978’s
Live And More, 1979’s
Bad Girls and 1979’s
On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes Vol. 1 And 2 and four chart-topping singles. However, her lightening fast rise to disco stardom came at a price and Summers warred with drug addiction, anxiety battles and difficulties dealing with her position as a sex symbol. She went on to become a born-again Christian and for the next 30 years, refused to play "Love to Love You Baby". She attempted a comeback in the '80s but never regained the heights of her past successes.
However, Summers will always be remembered for giving the shimmering, sweat soaked, boogie-inducing freedom of the 70s an unforgettable voice.
R.I.P. Donna Summers 1948 - 2012.